Monday, 23 December 2013

I made two of these Fairy Wren decorations from Ink and Spindle that can be hung on a tree or handle. The interesting fabric was hand printed by this Melbourne based textile design company.

I also made this cushion from a kit by Pieces to Treasure(although it no longer appears to be on their website). It was an interesting exercise re-discovering how to do button holes on my machine, frustrating but I got there in the end.

So no more sewing, today will be for cleaning and cooking.

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a safe and peaceful holiday.

Saturday, 21 December 2013

In between getting ready for Christmas I've managed to finish Block #14 for my CCCQ. I've christened this block Dancing Tulips as I decided to mix up some of the original versions so that the flowers looked like they were in a party mood.

Friday, 13 December 2013

Judy and I have finished block #1 of AWS, we aren't really going in any particular order. This was a very difficult block combining broderie perse, hand piecing and needle turn appliqué and I took an age to decide on the fabrics.

AWS #1 - Carole

AWS #1 detail

I think I'm getting better at taking photos with my iPad, especially close ups, but I'm hoping Santa brings me a new camera. My trusty old Sony Cybershot died after a good 8 years of service. It might be old fashioned (mum, just get a better phone) but I miss having a dedicated camera. If you want to know how I appliqué my circles go here. This is Judy's first go at broderie perse - beautifully needle turned :)...

AWS #1 - Judy

I decided to keep the green outline on block #13 and do the broderie perse with a buttonhole stitch on the machine.

Saturday, 7 December 2013

Last night I joined up with FNWF for the first time. I'm afraid I had overdone it with the needle turn appliqué the other day as my right index finger has packed it in and said 'enough!' . So I'm having to give it a rest and not do any hand sewing. This has forced motivated me to start making some Christmas gifts. I'm making some French table runners from kits I purchased from Pieces to Treasure. Here is the first one that I spent the evening preparing for machine appliqué - with a jug at each end there were lots of little circles to cut out!

Bordeaux Berries

Hope you're making good progress with any Christmas sewing you may have.

Tuesday, 3 December 2013

I've been working away on my 3 major projects (yes there are more tucked away)

Block #1 of my Antique Wedding Sampler is coming along...

I have added the 2nd fabric border to my Auntie Green (I'm using a different fabric for each of the 3 borders)...

...and marked out the appliqué and auditioned fabrics for the stems and leaves.

I have also been working on block #14 of my CCCQ. I learnt a different way of doing stems from Di Ford so thought I would give this method a go.

Cut the fabric on the diagonal

Fold in half with wrong sides together.

Mark stem lines, down the centre of where the stem will lie with a pencil.

Lay the stem along the pencil line (on the inside curve if any) and sew a running stitch 1/8" from raw edge, using double thread.

Then fold over and slip stitch down this side. I tucked in the leaves as I came to them.

I quite like this method and the running stitch step can be done on the sewing machine so with all the stems on Aunty Green I'll probably do it this way. I'm linking up to Esther's WOW = WIPs on Wednesdays.